Now, let's download Java. Open up http://developers.sun.com/downloads in your browser. Click the expand button [+] for Java SE and click on Java SE (JDK) 6. It will take you to a page with more choices. We're going to want JDK 6 Update 10 with Java EE. Select Windows, and the Language you want, and you can finally download the JDK.

Last but not least, we're going to need Eclipse. Head over to http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/. The version we want is Eclipse IDE for Java Developers. The JEE version will work as well.

Now, we've downloaded just about everything we're going to need.

Let's go ahead and fire up the JDK installer.

Click next, agree to the license, next again (installing to C:\Sun\SDK), and we'll be prompted to set the admin password.

Enter a password and click next. Now we'll be presented with the installation options. You can leave these default and click next. Finally, it will let you install what we've chosen.

Click install now.

Time to wait. Grab something to drink (or eat).

At the end of the install we'll be prompted to sign in (if registered.) You can sign up if you'd like, or log in if you've already signed up. You can also skip the whole process if you want.

Now we can get started on the fun stuff. Create a new folder on your C: Drive (or whatever you use,) and name it android. Open up the Android SDK zip, and go into the main folder. Copy all of the files from the Android SDK zip into C:\android.

We've now got to set the all important Path variable. Right click on My Computer and click Advanced, Environmental Variables (or Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environmental Variables.)

In the Environmental Variables window, in the System Variables pane, scroll down to Path. Double click on it to edit it. Scroll all the way to the right side of the value, and add ";c:\android\tools" (or the absolute path to your tools folder,) to the end of it, as shown below.

Click OK in all of the windows, and that's good to go.

Time for Eclipse. Create a new folder on your C: Drive (or whatever you use,) and name it eclipse. Just like before, open up the Eclipse zip, go into the main folder, and copy all of the files into C:\eclipse.

Almost there! Go ahead and make a shortcut to Eclipse on your Desktop (if you want.) Start up Eclipse.

It will prompt you to choose a workspace location.

This is where all of your project files will be stored. Set it where you want, and click OK.

Once Eclipse is started up, we can add the ADT plugin. In the menu, Help -> Software Updates.

Click Install. Eclipse will go ahead and calculate the installation stuff it needs, and download the files.

Click finish, and it will install them.

Eclipse will prompt you to restart, click Yes. Eclipse will restart, and whalah, you're finished!

To run a quick test and make sure everything is working properly, go to File -> New -> Project. Expand Android, click on Android Project, and click Next.

Now we'll have to fill in our project information. Because this is a test run, we'll call the project testrun. For the package name, we'll use com.android.test. And last but not least, the activity name will be test.

Click Finish.

Eclipse will crunch on that for a second, and open the project in the left pane. Expand the main tree to see the file structure of a default new project. The last thing we need to do before we run our test application is set up a run configuration. In the menu, go to Run -> Run Configurations...

Double click on Android Application and it will create a new configuration. Give the configuration a name, and click browse for the project.

Choose your project, click OK. Now click Apply, then Run.

You'll notice the bottom pane switches over to Console. This will let you know what's going on with the emulator. After a few seconds, the emulator will start up.

Note that the first run will take *much* longer than usual to start up, as it's setting up the Android OS while it starts up for the first time. Depending on the specs of your computer, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to over half an hour.

After awhile, you'll arrive at the starting screen.

Click on Menu to unlock the screen. Usually, you'll get a few errors as things start up and can't be started.

I usually just click wait. In the console, you'll see it install, and then start up your application.

And with that, it's time for you to dive into the code and start making your application.

Hi,
thats a nice presentation by you for installing android on windows xp. It is very helpful to me. after setting the path, when i tried to start eclipse a error window flashed on the screen saying that " a java Runtime environment or jdk must be available inorder to run eclipse. No java virtal machine was found after searching the following locations c:\eclipse\jre\bin\javaw.exe javaw.exe in your currebt path". I tried changing paths, but i did not succeed. I have been using windows xp 2002 version sevice pack 2. Please tell me solution. Thanks in advance.

hi ,
when i add site http://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse it said no repository and i clicked ok but when i tried to expand the tree of the site it said again there is no repository and it didn't expanded so please tell me what i have to do.

Thanks for the tutorial. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks very thorough. I'm still in the Developer 100 stage of learning how to develop for Android (I was a java developer by trade for 5 years, a lifetime ago). I'm very sorry if these questions have already been answered elsewhere, I just didn't find them, but if you could post the URL, many much thanks. Way more basic questions than you address:

-do I need a separate piece of hardware than the basic T-Mobile G1 phone I already have (i.e. a "developer phone")?

-so if I get the Android SDK (I already use Eclipse), is it possible to get my in-progress application onto my phone for testing without putting it out in the Market? Or is the emulator designed to eliminate that need?

Thanks for the tutorial. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks very thorough. I'm still in the Developer 100 stage of learning how to develop for Android (I was a java developer by trade for 5 years, a lifetime ago). I'm very sorry if these questions have already been answered elsewhere, I just didn't find them, but if you could post the URL, many much thanks. Way more basic questions than you address:

-do I need a separate piece of hardware than the basic T-Mobile G1 phone I already have (i.e. a "developer phone")?

-so if I get the Android SDK (I already use Eclipse), is it possible to get my in-progress application onto my phone for testing without putting it out in the Market? Or is the emulator designed to eliminate that need?

-what is the path to getting an application in the Market?

Thanks for any useful answers!

Click to expand...

To answer your questions...

- I'm learning to develop for android and I'm getting along fine with just the normal G1 and the SDK emulator..

- I think the emulator is meant to eliminate that need...although I doubt it's better than actually having a real phone to test it on...

- That...is something I don't know the answer to...I'm nowhere near creating a fully working app so I haven't bothered to look it up...but I'm assuming it would be through the Android Market website...(or maybe the Developers site)

Once you've got all the SDK stuff set up, you can pretty much plug in your phone, run your project, and Eclipse does the rest. If the phone is plugged in, it loads it up on your G1/ADP1, if not, it loads up in the emulator.

As for the market, you'll have to sign up for a developer account ($25), you'll have to confirm your bank/google checkout connected account (using a small deposit, a-la-paypal/other payment services, assuming you want to sell your apps) and then you'll be able to post your applications to the market. Instead of explaining in boring text how it all works, I took a few screenshots for you.

The main market menu. Lists all your submitted applications, the number of ratings, 'total' rating, total downloads and estimated installations with %, Price, and whether or not it's published. At the bottom right, you'll see the Upload application button...

Upon clicking that, you'll be able to choose the application to upload (signed with non-debug keys, of course,) which language it's localized for, it's title and description, type and category, price...

Whether or not to use copy protection (supposedly stops non-root users from being able to copy your application,) Which countries you want to release your app or game in, your contact information, and the agreements you've to agree to.

This is a weird one. I found I had to highlight the project and hit F5 to clear this error. The project has a red x on it until you do F5 once for some reason.

Error 2 running project:
Android AVD Error. No compatible targets were found. Do you wish to a add (sic) new Android Virtual Device?

This gave me an option to create an Android Virtual Device, so I filled in the settings (below), clicked Create AVD, selected the one I just created, then clicked Finish.
Name: Android-1.5-Emulator
Target: Android 1.5 - 1.5
Skin: Default (HVGA)

Wow! Now I actually have an emulator up and running!!! I see Hello World! I never could have done it without your help. I really appreciate the time you took to put all this together. I hope the notes I added there will help anyone who runs across the troubles I did.

Alright, played around with this some more, and finally got it to work. If anyone else is having the same problem, here's what I did (and it really was as simple as unchecking ONE box):

Download the ADT Plugin .zip file. In the 'Add Site' dialogue, click archive, select the .zip file, and hit OK. Uncheck the box that reads "Contact all update sites during install to find required software". If you dont, it'll just try to connect to the same site that you couldn't connect to before, and much like I did for a week, you'll be running in circles. When it comes to adding SDK components, I also found I had to enable 'force download from http' in the settings.

Regardless, it looks like everything should be up and running after I finish adding the SDK components. Thanks for the writeup! Despite a small road block, the writeup was very helpful.

Alright, played around with this some more, and finally got it to work. If anyone else is having the same problem, here's what I did (and it really was as simple as unchecking ONE box):

Download the ADT Plugin .zip file. In the 'Add Site' dialogue, click archive, select the .zip file, and hit OK. Uncheck the box that reads "Contact all update sites during install to find required software". If you dont, it'll just try to connect to the same site that you couldn't connect to before, and much like I did for a week, you'll be running in circles. When it comes to adding SDK components, I also found I had to enable 'force download from http' in the settings.

Regardless, it looks like everything should be up and running after I finish adding the SDK components. Thanks for the writeup! Despite a small road block, the writeup was very helpful.

It looks like the newest stuff in Eclipse for Android is very different than the steps outlined above. It's complaining about things that I don't have set up yet when I try to create an Android project. Anyone have an updated set of set-up steps?